Commentary

Are Dreams Instructive? — What Autoethnographic Research Might Reveal about Trump’s Rhetoric

Richard CherwitzJuly 26, 2019

Our dreams often are unsettling. Sometimes, however, they also provide a unique picture of and insight into reality, giving us a clearer and more vivid underst...

Commentary

Trump’s Rhetorical Stonewalling Strategy

Richard CherwitzMay 13, 2019

President Donald J. Trump and members of his administration are stonewalling on the issue of the Mueller report and subsequent congressional investigations. Th...

Commentary

President [Noselaugh] Trump and the Question of Character

Rosa A. EberlyMarch 14, 2019

“It's demoralizing. It's unfair.” Jan. 28, 2019, was her first day back at work in five weeks, yet the prospect of another shutdown loomed. A Sacramento TSA ...

Commentary

Michael Cohen’s verbal somersault

Jennifer MerciecaMarch 1, 2019

This article originally appeared in The Conversation on February 27, 2019. Michael Cohen, who admits to lying, also says he’s not a liar. Can we separate ...

Commentary

What Can ‘The Favourite’ Tell Us about the Rhetoric of Queer Letters?

Pamela VanHaitsmaFebruary 22, 2019

With the Academy Awards scheduled for this week, there’s plenty of buzz about “The Favourite.” It tops this year’s nominations (alongside “Roma”) with 10, recei...

Commentary

One Rhetorician’s Read of Trump’s Second State of the Union

Richard CherwitzFebruary 7, 2019

There are eight observations that really stood out to me, a communication scholar of over 40 years, in watching President Trump’s State of the Union address on ...

Commentary

In Defense of an Open Society

John M. MurphyJanuary 28, 2019

The New York Times celebrated a new year by updating its archive of the people, places, and things insulted by President Trump on Twitter. High on that list was...

Commentary

Government #ShutDown and Stasis

Jonathan L. BradshawJanuary 24, 2019

American public discourse has worked itself into knots again. Amid the recent government shutdown and deliberation over President Trump’s wall, we seem to have ...

Commentary

Disrupting the Trump Monologue

John RountreeDecember 27, 2018

Two weeks before Christmas, news audiences were treated to a rare spectacle in the Oval Office: a bickering debate between President Trump and the Democratic le...

Commentary

If Dems are elected, they’ll do what we’ve been doing!

Patricia Roberts-MillerNovember 2, 2018

Recently, a common claim (what scholars of rhetoric would call a topos) has emerged among Trump and GOP media, and it goes like this: if Democrats gain the Hous...

Commentary